The Walking Dead: Dead City | "Everybody Wins a Prize" | Episode 4 Recap & Review

*SPOILERS AHEAD AND MATURE READERS RECOMMENDED*

The fourth installment begins with a very juice flashback. We see Negan drawing/adding to a map in the Sanctuary, with Lucille sitting happily in her own chair waiting for some action. When all of a sudden Negan looks up and Steven Ogg as Simon walks in. Now I love how Ogg portrayed the character of Simon in the OS, he was probably my favorite "bad" character besides Negan from the OS. He casually walks in and says "Neegs" we have a problem. By the way, Neegs?!

We see Negan and Simon walking down a hallway when a door opens and who else but the Croat is there, proclaiming "Negan, we've done it." Done what? Well, knowing now that the Croat was the former torturer at the Sanctuary, I'm assuming he got information out of someone. Well, looks like he did. It appears to be the woman from the story that Negan told to Maggie and the tribespeople when laying out their plan to rescue Hershel, and again presumably- was sent by the king. King Ezekiel perhaps? Now, if you've been following along with The Stalking Dead for the past 10+ years, you obviously know that I love a good flashback, but this one- dare I say the best one in TWD universe up this point? Yes, I'll be bold and go that far.

We now see Maggie, Negan and the tribespeople preparing to set out to execute their plan. But they can't seem to locate Luther. Now if you remember, Luther wasn't a fan of this plan and was able to corner Negan an confront him about a wanted poster he had found. Long story short, Negn was able to best Luther and he wound up falling and puncturing his head on a pipe on the ground. Yes I know, spoilers. We cut back to the group- Maggie hasn't said much for what seems like an episode and a half, but she could gather by Negan's look at her that he had something to do with Luther's disappearance.

Maggie, Negan and the tribespeople exit the building they were in and start out on their mission down the street. They then find themselves underground in what looks like a subway track. Tommaso looks down at a walker, the walker looks back up at him but doesn't get up as if to say, "Nah, not today." Did we just encounter our first "lazy-bro" walker? Because if we did, that would be very relative, and awesome. We all know walkers aren't prohibited by things preventing them from at least trying to get passed/get up, and would walk away with their dead, fleshy skin being torn off just to get to their next meal.

The following scene now only shows Maggie, Negan, Amaria and Tommaso walking through a hallway behind what can be taken as some ticket booths. As they search each one, Maggie and Negan come to the last one. They find what perhaps they think is Hershel. Negan saves Maggie the trouble and goes and checks, turns out they have become a walker, but a walker in a Hershel-like body type. And to be honest, still kind of looked a little like Hershel, even as a walker.

The first glance we get of the Croat, in the present time, is him entering a control room with a young boy sitting at the helm of what looks like a control station. The Croat goes on about if the boy is able to execute the *old tech alert* inserting the CD-Rom into the system which is going to start the Croat's own plan into motion. Now, you had to figure that once Armstrong told the Croat that he was looking for him, the wheels went into motion for capturing, if not killing Negan. Just then, we hear the spine-tingling, hair standing up on the back of your neck whistle. The whistle that was haunted audience's and Maggie for years. The same whistle that we heard right before Glenn and Abraham's demise.

As the group we're following sets out on their new side-mission, we see Maggie trying to find a car to take. Just as she is about to start up a cab, she sees Ginny and, of course, another wrench is thrown into their plans. Maggie eventually catches up to her and subsequently runs into the tribespeople as well. Amaia tells Maggie that the Burazi are no where to be found. Just then, the Croat's plan is starting. The disc the boy entered in the control room as counted down to 0:00, a candle that was lit falls into a flammable barrel and all hell is about to break lose. Walkers are being brought in from all tunnel entrances on the ground floor and all around the arena. As the heard closes in, we see the "character is about to die" glance between Amaia and Tommaso. Tomasso is taken down. Hey, we've always said dating back to the early seasons of the OS, don't fall in love in the apocalypse. it never ends well. By the way, a Croatian ballad, "Proplakat Ce Zora", is playing over the arena speakers as a slap in the face. And in the words of Admiral Ackbar, "It's a trap!"

Negan has been creeping around the parked cars as Maggie and the tribespeople are fending off walkers during Tommaso's death- are we about to see a Negan/Croat reunion? Well I think it's pretty obvious we are getting one soon right? Again, if you've been following our journey throughout the OS run, you also know that I love a good reunion, especially after some of the group has been away for a few episodes. But this reunion will probably not be with open arms, but open fire. By the time we cut back to Maggie and co., there are only four of them left- Maggie, Ginny, Amaia and Rizza, the woman we saw in the street picking up the stuffed dinosaur. As the four are now encaged in the UFC octagon in the middle of the arena, Maggie thinks back, and a very good call-back to the OS when Aaron and company used shields in season ten. By the way, during all of this, we did get a faint reunion between Negan and the Croat, as during their chase Negan looks down at him in a stairwell- definitely not the reunions we like.

We then get a surprise! Well two, one good and one bad. Rizza goes down as they are trying to fight off walkers with their newly acquired shields. But, Tommaso appears out of nowhere to leads them from danger. I'm not sure if this is a semi call-back to all of the close calls with walkers we've seen over the years, especially in the OS. The one that always sticks out for me is when Glenn was trapped under the dumpster in season six.

Here it is. The reunion. Negan and the Croat. Obviously, the Croat does most of the talking.I won't get into all of it but he mentions he knew it was Negan's handiwork for what happened to his ear, which he doesn't seem to mind. He brings up Negan's battles with Alexandria, Hilltop and the Kingdom- all nice call backs. Then he brings up Maggie- or the widow- again, nice reference back. Negan says he knows what he's there for, the Croat agrees and brings out marshal Armstrong- not Hershel. This is where I'm not sure if the Croat really wanted to have a civil conversation or, like Negan, is pretty witty and clever and always has something up his sleeves. And usually a "laying-down of arms" constitutes a mutual truce, none of which was done. The Corat proceeds to launch Armstrong over the banister, Negan was able to help him up after the Croat show one of their drill-gun weapons into his thigh. I'm thinking Negan is helping the marshal as a sign of good faith to which Armstrong will owe him one? Not bad thinking on Negan's part. But as we fast forward a little, Armstrong is still going to uphold the law to which Negan replies, "You're a dick." Classic.

The episode closes with Maggie, Ginny, Amaia and the newly risen from the dead Tommaso continuing their pursuit of escape. Before this scene, I want to go back to the hesitance of Maggie seeing an opening for her, and her alone, to escape back at the UFC octagon. She had visions of Hershel and looks back seeing Ginny, she decides to [I guess] not be selfish and stick with the group and try and save Ginny. Another presumption here, but during this moment, I think Maggie does truly believe that Negan will help her rescue her son, whether it's during this mission, or they regroup and try again at a later time. either way, I think Maggie is starting to realize that Negan does have a soft spot for kids- as we saw in the OS with Carl and Judith. Now back to Maggie, Amaia and Tommaso's escape attempt. They have no other option but to climb down into the sewers, which we have learned is where a crap-ton of walkers reside, but it's their only hope. Now, i can't be the only one who thought Maggie was going to try and cover the stairs with that big barrel and go back and try her earlier attempt on finding Hershel, right? No, can't be. But she doesn't, climbs down and end of episode.

So overall, episode four is by far my favorite so far this season and in this series. That statement has a lot to do with the best flashback we've seen, maybe ever. Again, if you've been following along and reading these recaps, we give grades and such. So for this episode, I am going to give it a solid A, or 9/10. I guess the only reason it didn't receive a perfect score is because I didn't really like, and I guess follow, with the conversation between Maggie and Negan about a harmonica. But maybe I missed something, and I digress. Again, this series continues to impress me, with the flashbacks, recalls and call-backs to so many easter eggs from the OS.

Did you happen to catch when the name of the episode, "Everybody Wins a Prize", was said? Que Jeopardy music... It came after Maggie and Negan had found the fake Hershel walker in the ticket booth, Amaia is laying out what to do next: "...You get your kid. We kill the psycho. Everybody wins a prize." Ding, ding, ding! You win! What do you win? Well, nothing. Yet. But good job!

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